EAST FAREWELL
NEWS
Thursday, July 9,
1959 Vol. C732
LOCAL
NEWS
BIG, BRIGHT BOOMS OVER EAST
FAREWELL
East Farewell – It was a perfect summer evening, mid-60s, not
much wind and no clouds. The Fun Pier was crowed and most of the lakefront
houses were hosting parties. There were small boats and canoes drifting close
the shore. Promptly at 8:00PM a single thud was heard coming from a barge
anchored in the middle of the lake and a tell-tale trace of sparkles spiraled
upward and the exploded into giant gold chrysanthemum that drifted lazily to
the ground, thus started the 1959 July 4th
East Farewell Fireworks Display. The display has become the most
talked about mid-summer festivity of the entire mid-state area. People come
from all over to see the spectacular display that seems to get more spectacular
every year. Fireworks International once again brought the show to town. They
have put on the display for the last five years and every year they seem to
outdo themselves. Last year they moved the launch to a barge in the middle of
Lake Charles. This was such a successful move that they licensed the spot and
had the Town Council declare a “safe zone” around the barge so no curious
boaters would be able to float into danger of falling debris.
This year F.I.
boasted that they had 1,200 explosive capsules of many different flavors. This
year F.I. tried a new addition. Pulling from past performances, F.I. floated a
temporary platform about 100 yards off the Lakefront Plaza and set up a
wonderful ground display. It was estimated that almost 9,000 people attended
the event, up from last year and most stayed for the entire weekend giving the
town’s restaurants and bars a big boost in sales. On Friday night the Business
Association sponsored a Main Street Stroll and Main Street was packed. On
Saturday the Travelers took on Slate Mountain in the afternoon, winning 9-2 and
in the evening before the display the Regional High Pep Band gathered on Lakefront Plaza and gave a
rousing version of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” and a wonderful version of
the National Anthem that was an accompanied by the full High School Chorus, all
83 members. Earlier in the evening visitors were treated to a reading of the
Declaration of Independence by Regional High School senior and debate club
president, Arnold Brenner.
The display was
longer this year, almost 35 minutes, louder and more varied, from multi-colored
bursts to loud signature reports. Fireworks International owner, Geraldo Massi,
was very happy with the event. “This is one of my favorite events. Everyone
here is so great. The Fire Department is so good and so very helpful. This year
we really went all out by adding the ground display and we had almost 1,200
capsules, that is by far the most we have ever done. But, I wouldn’t want to do
it anywhere but in East
Farewell.”
Fireworks over
Lake Charles 1959
SPORTS
TRAVELERS SET OFF EARLY
FIREWORKS
East
Farewell – The Saturday afternoon was perfect for baseball, Travelers baseball
that is. It was all Travelers on an Independence Day themed game as they
clobbered the Slate Mountain Miners, 9-2. The Miners were without their
pitching ace, Tony “Michael” Angelo, but they were unable to generate any
offense against Travelers Joe Nagy so even a good pitching outing would not
have helped. The Travelers put on their
own fireworks preceding the evenings display by smashing four homeruns in four
consecutive innings. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh inning were the
staging areas for the interesting footnote to team history. In the fourth Billy
Sweet unleashed only his third homer of the season and drove in Brown and
Archibald. The fifth Bobby Watson drove in Francis and Dunham. In the sixth
inning Artie Archibald blasted an out of the park rocket brining in Joey Brown.
Finally in the seventh adding insult to injury Joe Nagy hit his first homerun
of his career, just over the fence in right field. Miners right fielder, Murry
Mounds tried to reach over the fence but his mitt hit a post and the ball
sailed over it into the hands of an exuberant young fan who was coincidentally
sport a mitt, too. The Miners were able to scrape out two runs on five hits but
Nagy was in fine form and ended up striking out nine. The Travelers were able
put on a fireworks prelude on Saturday and the adoring fans loved it.
Next week the Travelers go back on
the road as they head up to Riverview to face the Anglers. This will be an evening
game in the Anglers beautiful ballpark. The game begins at 7:05PM in Riverview.
NATIONAL NEWS
WILDFIRE IN CALIFORNIA – SENATE PROBES HOFFA
– US PULLS JETS FROM FRANCE
A
fire near Hollywood at Laurel Canyon raises 48 homes. No injuries reported but
several pets are still missing. Damages estimated at over 1 million dollars.
Senate
rackets probers hear that James Hoffa plotted to spend $105 thousand of
teamster union money to clinch control over the monitors named to check him.
One was offered a payoff to “leave.” In
other labor news; Steel industry negotiations collapse with only remaining
before a threatened industry strike.
The
United States says it will pull its nine jet fighter-bomber squadrons out of
France “without further delay” in a nuclear argument with French President de
Gaulle. The U.S. argument was that the planes must have nuclear weapons
available close at hand. But France has refused to allow stockpiling of such
weapons on its soil.
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